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A Texan in the Heart of Darkness - T-6G in Biafran war


dutik

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Good question. Well, there are ribs which are well visible with BMF or gloss finished Texans, but they are less prominent and narrower. This is not so much a concern with my intended multicolored disruptive camouflage, but I think I will sand them a little bit down for a better look. For a BMF or glossy Texan I would prefer to sand them off and to replace them with strip styrene, sanded/tapered a bit to blend smooth into the surface. Just like modelers do with WW1 aircraft.

 

Regards

- dutik

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  • 2 months later...

With the lower side near completion it is time to take a final look at the cockpit. Still lacking are the rear IP and the radios. Made a set of comm boxex for the rear shelf:

 

biafra22yhknf.jpg

 

Some paint, some wiring, a placard or two and I am ready. Well, I have no clue what radios were used in Biafra. Some of the portugese Texans show a collection of 4 devices instead of the two parts provided with the kit, so I go this way.  Maybe some new images of the Biafran Texans will appear when I finished the kit, but until that happens my guess is as good as yours.

 

Enjoy

- dutik

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Well, photos of the wireless equipment are hard to find. Of the real old military stuff, not the modern warbird radios. Guess I looked at 1.000+ images. 550 at a single french homepage about the Armee de l'air. Most cockpit photos focus on the pits and the instruments and stop at the back of the rear seat... Same to get the external antenna wiring right. Got one image of the radios from a Portugese homepage, so I made my radios to look like these. Dunno if this was a Harvard or a Texan, but they look nice to me. The color images of the French Texans also revealed that the safety frame above the sidewalls was not painted green (or chromate), but in a dark grey or black color.

 

Next was to add wiring to the back of the rear IP which is well visible and to add the IP and the overroll safety frame:

 

biafra25ehsm1.jpg

 

biafra26xksku.jpg

 

Now looking for a proper sight and mount, the the last piece of cockpit equipment needed.

 

Regards

- dutik

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made a sight from scratch. This is one part Kitty Hawk missed, and it is a serious omission. The armed Texans had one, and your armed Texan has to have one. KH, you missed the standards!

 

Images to follow. Slipped when adding a new blade into my scalpel handle and cut into a finger. Have to clean up the scratchbuild sight as well as to wait a little bit until both of my hands are ready again to handle such delicate small parts. Will you also provide with links to images of the real deal.

 

Regards

- dutik

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The sight with the mount:

 

biafra27l1ph3.jpg

 

Hard to photograph. Took a fistful of ima ges to get a decent one. Drilled and cut a slot into the IP cover, inserted the mounting arm and glued the sight on top. The sight is mounted upside down, so the clear "screen" part is at the lower side (aka invisible in the photo).

 

Pic of the sight.

Front view. Click image to enlarge!

Rear view. Click image to enlarge!

 

They have a lot more interesting images at both homepages :popcorn:

 

Regards

- dutik

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The sight is in place and painted:

 

biafra28fgs56.jpg

 

Adding the canopy sections as the last step before painting. Drilled a hole into the rear window and glued a wire loop in place to support the antenna wires (the copper colored thingee in front).

 

Regards

- dutik

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Me too!

 

But it will take a day or another. Tamiyas Buff is clogging the airbrush like hell. The muzzle tip is buried under paint within only 5 minutes, despite using the large nozzle, high pressure and 50 percent of thinner...

The green went on so-so, the Buff is just a nightmare.

 

Regards

- dutik

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Was able to overcome the Buff issue. Airbrushed the remaining spots and peeled the masks off (only peeling off took me an hour or two). Here we go:

 

biafra31oqafm.jpg

 

biafra32c0lc2.jpg

 

Not too shabby all in all. Missed the outline at a few places. Thinned paint creaped under the masking here and there. Most can be corrected with a brushstroke of black or green.

Made a major mistake with the black outlines at the bottom and the cowl. They didn't match for a two-tone camo. Will paint some new outlines around the buff, mask the buff spots and airbrush some green to wipe out the surplus black lines. The green just works better with the airbrush.

 

Guess I will not be able to finish it this year, but we come closer...

 

Regards

- dutik

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Corrected the masking errors, the overspray, the outlines. Added walkways at the wingroots. They are well visible in the image of the Biafran Texans, but the color is your own guess. Much lighter than the black outlines and darker camo, not as bright as the bare metal canopy frames. White or grey maybe? So I went with some kind of light gray...

 

 

biafra33aps9w.jpg

 

Next steps are a clear coat and wheatering with oils.

 

Enjoy

- dutik

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